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M.L.S. Preview: Five Questions for Commissioner Don Garber

Ryan Remiorz/CP, via Associated PressDon Garber has overseen Major League Soccer’s growth and expansion — to 19 teams for the coming season — since 1999.

2012 M.L.S. Preview

Major League Soccer’s regular season opens with five games Saturday, two Sunday and one Monday. Until then, the Goal blog is looking ahead to the season five items at a time.

Don Garber took over a teetering 12-team league when he was hired as Major League Soccer’s commissioner in 1999, and saw it reduced to 10 clubs two years later. In the decade since, he has diversified its ownership, overhauled its finances and built a foundation that has made the league an established player in the North American sports landscape, with 19 teams, a national television contracts in the U.S. and Canada, and a string of player development success stories ranging from Clint Dempsey and Carlos Bocanegra to Jozy Altidore and Brek Shea. On the eve of the league’s season openers, he answered, via email, questions from the Goal blog. For more from Garber, you can follow him on Twitter @thesoccerdon.

1.

When you joined M.L.S. in 1999, the league had one soccer stadium (Columbus) and a small group of owners, some of whom controlled multiple teams. Now there are more than a dozen stadiums, 19 teams and competing bidders to get in. What do you see as your biggest achievement, and your biggest challenge in the future?

If I had to pick out one specific item, it would be the addition of new owners. In 2002 we had three owners for our 10 clubs. With expansion and sales, we have added 15 new ownership groups. These owners have brought new ideas that have contributed to our strategy for growing the league and the addition of new markets has expanded our geographic reach.

The soccer market continues to grow in the United States and Canada. A recent ESPN poll indicated that professional soccer is the second most popular sport among young people after the N.F.L. Our challenge is to convert all those fans who love the sport into being passionate and active fans of M.L.S. and their local M.L.S. club.

2.

Expansion is the new hot topic, with Orlando making a push to be the league’s 20th team even though a second team in New York has always been seen as the league’s preference. What can you tell us about where the issue stands, and how soon you would like to see it addressed? And is there a cap on the number of teams you would like to have in the league?

We remain focused on adding a second team in New York that would play in one of the five boroughs, and our goal is for this to be our 20th team. The key issue is finalizing a location and plan for the construction of a new soccer stadium that will serve as the home for the team. We have a number of full-time staff members and outside consultants who are working with the City of New York on this project. The timing of when this team could begin play depends on the progress of the development of the stadium.

We also continue to explore opportunities in other markets. For example, I was in Orlando last week and was very impressed with the potential ownership group and their plans. While we do not have plans to expand beyond 20 teams at this time, based on the size of the U.S. and Canada we could grow beyond 20 clubs at some point in the future.

3.

Many fans don’t know that M.L.S. has a reserve league. How important is that to the league’s future, and does M.L.S. have a responsibility to do more in terms of developing young players, especially young Americans?

Developing young players is one of our top priorities. Similar to other professional soccer leagues around the world, M.L.S. has a reserve league in which each club has a second team consisting of the bottom half of the club’s roster. These players compete against other M.L.S. reserve clubs during the season in competitive matches, which is a very critical part of the development process.

We have created a number of initiatives to assist our clubs in player development in addition to the M.L.S. Reserve League, including increasing the size of our rosters and establishing academy programs.

Several years ago we launched the Generation Adidas program which provides financial assistance to M.L.S. clubs who sign young American players. Juan Agudelo, a talented young player with the Red Bulls, F.C. Dallas striker Brek Shea and L.A. Galaxy defender Omar Gonzalez are all products of this program and have become promising young members of the U.S. men’s national team.

Every M.L.S. club has a vibrant academy system that develops young players starting at 16 years old. If an M.L.S. club develops a local player, they are able to sign him directly to their roster as opposed to having that player enter the M.L.S. SuperDraft. We have more than 40 academy players that have signed professional contracts with M.L.S. clubs, and that number should grow significantly during the next 5 to 10 years.

4.

When you became commissioner, you did away with some M.L.S. rules quirks and brought the league into line with the rest of the world. Do you ever see a possibility for relegation and promotion in M.L.S.?

When M.L.S. first started the league had some unique rules such as a tie-breaker shootout that were intended to appeal to a broader fan base. We quickly learned that there were tens of millions of fans in this country that loved the game and wanted the league to play by the same rules as the rest of the world. At the end of the 1999 season, we changed our rules to adhere to the international standard and we have never looked back on that decision.

The topic of promotion and relegation is something I am asked about regularly, along with the league moving to a single table and possibly changing to a European calendar. While I personally think promotion and relegation would be very exciting, the professional soccer landscape in the United States and Canada is not mature enough to support this type of system, and therefore it is not something we are contemplating.

5.

You were a key player in bringing David Beckham to M.L.S., a once-criticized move that most now agree has been a huge success for the league. Now that he has decided to stay, is it too much to call that a seminal moment in the league’s history? And is there a similar move to be made in the future?

The addition of the Designated Player Rule in 2007 was a transformational moment in the league’s history. David Beckham was the first D.P. signed and clearly has had a major impact on the overall awareness, popularity and credibility of the league here and internationally. David is still one of the most popular players and cultural icons in the world. Last year, he was an All-Star and a major contributor to the Galaxy’s championship run.

Since David’s signing, there have been a number of other notable designated players, including the Red Bulls’ Thierry Henry, one of the Premier League’s greatest players, and Rafa Marquez, the captain of the Mexican national team. Last year, the Galaxy signed 31-year-old Robbie Keane, the captain of Ireland’s national team and an exciting striker who is sure to score lots of goals over the next few years.

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Goal, The New York Times soccer blog, will report on news and features from the world of soccer and around the Web. Times editors and reporters will follow international tournaments and provide analysis of games. There will be interviews with players, coaches and notable soccer fans, as well as a weekly blog column by Red Bulls forward Jozy Altidore. Readers can discuss Major League Soccer, foreign leagues and other issues with fellow soccer fans.